Cigarettes

Thieves who slip in through the rooftops of liquor stores to help themselves to cartons of cigarettes have been victimizing shopkeepers from Moorpark to as far away as Glendale, authorities say. In at least one of the thefts, sheriff's investigators have narrowed their focus to four men who were captured on videotape as they cased Moorpark Liquors in the 300 block of West Los Angeles Ave., said Sgt. Terry Hughes of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. On the morning of Aug.

President Clinton proposed a 25-cents-a-pack increase in the federal tax on cigarettes and a method of fining tobacco companies for failing to reduce youth smoking. The measures will be included in Clinton's proposed budget for fiscal 2001, which will be released Monday. The GOP-led Congress killed a major anti-smoking measure in June 1998 and rejected his call for a 55-cents-a-pack increase in the federal tax on cigarettes last year.

In an attempt to curb the sale of cigarettes to children, Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude on Friday proposed a citywide ban on cigarette vending machines. If the council approves the measure, Los Angeles would become the first major city in the country to institute such a ban. "If we're to change the way Americans become addicted to cigarettes," Braude said, "we've got to influence children and this is the way to do it."

A 16-year-old walked into a liquor store at Brookhurst Street and Edinger Avenue on Wednesday and came out with a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. The same teen then went to a nearby gas station and was successful in buying cigarettes. At his next stop, however, he struck out. The clerk asked for identification and then refused to sell to him. The incidents were part of a Police Department program to discourage businesses from selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors.

On the eve of a national "smokeout," a Korean tobacco company was handing out cigarettes Wednesday at a Korean community center in Orange County, promising that a portion of any donations would go toward building elderly housing in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. An Orange County health official immediately assailed the promotional tactic Wednesday, accusing the government-run Korea Tobacco and Ginseng Corp.

A single puff from a special cigarette developed by a Beijing research institute can stop a toothache in 10 seconds, the official China Daily reported. The newspaper quoted Sun Guofu, president of the Beijing Design and Research Institute of Physical and Chemical Engineering, as listing the cigarette among 32 projects tested and awaiting full production and marketing.

An undercover investigation into the fencing of stolen cigarettes ended Wednesday with raids on two liquor stores and the arrests of five people. Detectives with the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the city Police Department formed a task group called Operation Greed, officials said. The investigators contacted businesses and offered to sell what were described as stolen cigarettes at half of their $94,000 retail value.

Lawyers for the tobacco industry argued that cigarette makers should be allowed to present evidence in a landmark trial that Florida sold cigarettes to prisoners and must bear responsibility for smoking-related illnesses of its citizens. The motion to allow the evidence was filed in the state's court case to try and recover $450 million in Medicaid payments for smoking-related illnesses. A jury trial in the case is scheduled to begin this summer.

The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it will revamp its long-criticized system for measuring tar and nicotine in cigarettes to better reflect the varied ways that people smoke. Even though the new system--which would provide a range of nicotine and tar delivery per cigarette--would give smokers a better idea of what they're getting, the agency also proposed that companies warn consumers through their advertisements that lower ratings do not necessarily guarantee a safer smoke.

Cigarette smoking can be more difficult to give up than heroin and cocaine, a medical expert testified Thursday in a trial to determine whether R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is liable in the death of a man who smoked the firm's cigarettes for more than 50 years. Dr.